Benji’s eyebrows furrowed. “It’s more than just that, though. I’m not exactly sure what it is, but I can tell that there is something else going on here.” He frowned, and he wrinkled his nose. “There is something more to this. Bastards hired me to come through here for this?”
Imogen looked over to her brother, who had started to pour his water into the puncture wound on his abdomen, wincing as he did. He shook his head at her, which she knew meant he didn’t want her to say anything about Dheleus.
This could be nothing more than coincidence, but Imogen had stopped thinking there were coincidences like that long ago. There was something here, even if she didn’t really know what it was.
Someone like Benji—a Porapeth with real power—might actually help with this.
And with Timo.
“Well?” Benji asked.
“Well, what?” Imogen replied.
“It looks as if your man there needs to recover, and since I’m a little lame, I’m going to need your help. Why don’t we take a moment, rest for the night, and then we can go after this adlet?”
Imogen frowned at him, shaking her head. “We’re not going after the adlet with you.”
“Can’t leave something like that wandering a forest like this. Damn twisted magic,” he muttered. “So you can’t tell me you’re going to make me go after it myself. I mean, not that I would complain too much. I do enjoy the hunt, but I don’t want to take the fun away from you either.”
Imogen slipped her arms underneath Timo and helped him to his feet. He stood for a moment, wobbling, and nodded to her.
“See?” Benji asked. “Your man needs some rest. Trust me when I tell you he will be better in the morning. These wounds are quick to heal.”
“We won’t heal like you,” she said.
He chuckled. “Perhaps not. But you will heal nonetheless. And seeing as how you’re still alive and able to stand, I think you will do just fine.” He started down the path, his tattered shirt hanging off to either side, exposing occasional flashes of skin. He paused at one point and glanced back at them. “Are you coming?”
“I don’t know about this,” Timo said to her. “Going with a Porapeth?”
Imogen pressed her lips together and shrugged. “We were going after a Sul’toral anyway, so what is a different kind of magic?”
“Because it’s a Porapeth, that’s why.”
“We aren’t going to harm him,” she said.
“No. I know you don’t have any interest in harming someone like that.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Because I’ve seen you. Don’t think I haven’t paid any attention to what you’ve been doing to sorcerers.”
She regarded Timo for a long moment, deciding how she wanted to react and what she wanted to say. The Toral he’d killed outside Yoran had not been the first sorcerer he’d killed in the time he’d returned to her—only the first she had been able to prove.
Rather than snapping at him, she bit back any comment she might make. Instead, she would watch him carefully.
“Whatever happened here is more than just about the Sul’toral you’re chasing,” she said.
“You don’t know that. And I am not comfortable traveling with a Porapeth.”
“Even while you are injured?”
He sneered at Benji’s back, but he said nothing.
She wasn’t entirely sure what to say, only that there was something here. She wasn’t sure whether they needed to go with Benji or to go off on their own. At this point, it could be either one. Accompanying Benji might provide them with answers she wouldn’t get otherwise. She had no idea what this adlet was, though the Porapeth certainly seemed to. And then there was the mystery wound that had appeared on both Benji and Timo. An injury to Timo was bad enough, but whatever had attacked him had also struck Benji. That was even more surprising.
They were heading after Dheleus. Could this be the Sul’toral’s doing… or something else?
She needed answers, and she wasn’t sure that Timo would be interested in the questions she wanted to ask. All he knew was that heading this way would bring him toward Dheleus. He wouldn’t care that they might encounter dangerous creatures like the one they had already faced.
She breathed out and turned, heading with Timo along the path.
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“After him,” she said.
Timo looked over, holding her gaze. “You really have changed, Imogen.”
“Why is that?”
“You’re welcoming magic now.”
She took a deep breath, then shook her head. “This has nothing to do with that. This is everything to do with trying to find answers.”
“I’d rather leave him behind. You don’t want to get ensnared in a Porapeth’s web.”
“We have already helped him, so it’s too late for that,” she said.
“Maybe we should just drive our blades through him,” he whispered.
“Timo!”
“How is it any different than a sorcerer?”
She didn’t have a good answer for that. He was a Porapeth, and he was a magical being, but the Porapeth were different. She wasn’t exactly sure how to describe it, only that they were.
“What would the priests say?” she asked.
Timo frowned. “They would say that we protected our people.”
“From a Porapeth?” Her mind raced through stories she had heard. There were many children’s tales about the Porapeth and how they would ensnare children in their games, forcing them to serve. Much like other stories had turned out to be true, it seemed those about the Porapeth were also true. “We need to help him.”
“He’s a Porapeth,” Timo said.
“And?”
“There is no ‘and.’ There is only that he is a Porapeth. That’s enough.”
“It’s not enough. Not for me.”
Timo watched her, and he shook his head. “As I said, you really have changed.”
She ignored the implication. They made their way along the path, Timo limping steadily after Benji. He hadn’t gotten too far ahead of them, which suggested that maybe he was more injured than he was letting on. When she caught up to Benji, he was holding on to his injured arm with his good one, clutched against his belly. Every so often, he muttered under his breath.
“If we’re going to camp, we need to find a safe place,” she said.
“This entire forest should have been safe,” Benji replied. “That’s why I took this fucking job. I figured it would be easy money.”
Timo came up next to them. “I didn’t realize the Porapeth needed money.”
“Who doesn’t need money?” Benji said. “Why, a person can’t buy anything in this world without a little coin.”
“Can’t you just use magic to conjure a coin into existence?”
Benji looked over, and he grinned at Timo. “If only it were so simple. But then, the Leier believe everything is as simple as that, don’t they?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I mean nothing by it. Of course, I would mean no offense to you, my boy. How could I, when you’re nothing but a kind servant of those who would do justice in the world.”
Timo tensed, and Imogen patted him on the arm, trying to calm him.
Maybe this was a mistake. Having a Porapeth with them was certainly a questionable decision, and dangerous, especially as he had his own sort of magic—one she doubted the Leier patterns did anything to counter.
“How much farther?” Imogen asked. “I don’t think he can keep going for much longer.”
Benji glanced over, and he smiled. “Who said he would have to?”
“I’m just trying to get an answer,” she said.
Benji chuckled. “An answer, you shall have. Just keep moving, Leier.”
They followed the path, and Timo started to sag. As much as Imogen tried to hold him up and give him a little bit of strength, she found him continuing to fade. His ja
w remained clenched, and he fought to stay on his feet.
“Just keep walking,” she whispered.
“I am trying to keep walking,” Timo muttered.
“Just keep walking,” she said again.
Timo grunted. “I don’t like this.”
“There’s nothing you have to like,” Benji said, without looking back over his shoulder at them. “Either you come with me, or you don’t. There is nothing to this that has to be liked or disliked. It is a matter of want or not want.”
“I want to drive my blade into your back,” Timo mumbled.
Benji laughed, then cut off again once he started coughing. “Then do it, Leier.” He looked back, and there was a flash of danger in his silver eyes that Imogen could practically feel. “That is, if you think you can.”
Timo relaxed, almost as if forcing the anger back down. He shook his head, looking over to her. “I don’t like this,” he repeated.
“Would you stop saying that?” Benji said. “We have already established that what you and I like matters very little in the world. I would’ve liked to not have an adlet rip my belly. And I would like to not have some strange magical attack sapping my strength.” He snorted. “And I would like not to have to travel with a pair of Leier, but it seems to me the world has a different view of irony than I do.”
“You think this is the world’s doing?” Timo spat.
“Fate. Destiny. Whatever you want to call it.” Benji waved his hand. “And through all of it, it suggests to me that I am but a piece in all of this. Perhaps you are, as well.” He laughed again and shook his head. “Now, around the bend up here, we will find a small clearing. There is a collection of boulders that should provide us some protection for the night. At least, until the adlet catches our scent and decides to hunt us.”
Benji continued moving forward, and he became silent, limping along the road. He pressed his hands up against his stomach as he walked, but he moved more slowly than he had at first. Timo stayed close to Imogen, clutching on to her. Her brother seemed more than a little annoyed that he was forced to stay back with her. Benji had moved almost fifty feet ahead of them on the path.
Timo nodded toward the Porapeth. “I’ve heard of him before.”
“I gathered that, especially with the way you reacted when he said his name. What have you heard?”
“Benji the Elder. One of the most mysterious of the Porapeth.”
Imogen chuckled. “All of them are mysterious. At least, if you were to ask them.”
“This is something different,” Timo said. “This is a man who’s made a reputation for the kinds of things we’ve been trying to avoid. Well, the kinds I’ve been trying to avoid.”
“You’ve been chasing your bond,” she said. “You haven’t been avoiding anything.”
“My bond required that I chase magic. And now I know it’s good that I did. Had I not…” He shook his head.
“Most would have rather avoided magic.”
“I have avoided it. At least, as much as I could. But my quest involved this journey, you understand. You have to understand.”
There wasn’t much use in a Leier avoiding magic. They were trained to manage and diminish any influence it would have on them.
“Who is he?” Imogen asked.
“I’ve heard the same stories as you have, I’m sure. Benji the Elder, Porapeth who entangles all others,” he said, chanting one aspect of the nursery rhyme. “Benji the Elder will make you dance. Benji the Elder will make you sing. Benji the Elder will make you—”
Imogen raised her hand, cutting him off. “I was thinking that maybe you had heard something real about him.”
“Children’s stories are real enough. Especially when it comes to someone like him.”
“He knows something about this adlet, and probably even about what else attacked you.”
“It doesn’t matter what attacked me,” he said, shaking his head. “I will recover, and if we keep moving—”
“We might have to face whatever is out there.”
“We don’t have to face anything,” he said. “All we have to do is—”
“Find Dheleus.” She watched her brother. “But we don’t know how to do that, and we certainly can’t do that with you injured. You need to recover, and then we can keep looking. I know there’s another village not too far from here.” Hopefully, the barkeep had told her the truth, and they could follow that to find more information. “But for now, we can stay with Benji. If we were looking for rumors of magic, this is magic.”
Timo looked as if he wanted to argue with her, but he didn’t. For that, she was thankful. She didn’t know what she would say if he tried to counter her much more than he already had.
They reached the collection of rocks Benji had mentioned and found him leaning against one, resting his good arm on it while he looked over at his other shoulder. When they approached, he started laughing.
“This fucking thing still doesn’t want to work. I don’t suppose either of you has any enchantments on you?”
Timo looked over to her, and Imogen shook her head.
“Well?” Benji asked.
“I don’t have any enchantments on me that would help,” she said.
Her brother frowned, but he didn’t push, which she appreciated.
“Well, shit. I suppose I’m going to have to figure out some way to dig into this and figure out what that fucker did to me. Considering that I have no idea and can only feel the pain throbbing in my arm and can barely use the damn thing.”
Imogen guided Timo a little farther forward and helped him take a seat. She looked around at the small clearing of boulders off to the side of the path. As Benji had suggested, it would offer a layer of protection, much more than what they probably could have otherwise. It would be a reasonable place to stay.
She took a deep breath and sighed as she glanced over to her brother, realizing that he was watching her silently. A disapproving look flashed in his eyes, and his irritation was evident as he peered across the small boulder clearing at Benji. But he didn’t say anything.
“You’re going to have to watch over me, Leier,” Benji said to her, sinking to the ground and resting his head back against the stone. “Seems as if I’ve used more than I realized trying to make it here.”
“What do you mean?”
Benji’s eyes fluttered closed, and he leaned his head back against the stone. “Well, fuck.”
With that, he passed out.
Chapter Seven
Imogen gathered branches, looking over to where Benji lay motionless. Questions filled her, though she wasn’t sure which one to start with. She made quick work of picking up enough loose branches to start a fire, and even found a larger log that she dragged over, all while Timo watched her.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“I’m getting a fire going,” she said.
“Now?”
Imogen shrugged. “I figured now would be the best time. At least, once we have a fire going, then we can figure out what else we need to do.”
He nodded to the fallen form of Benji the Elder. “We have a Porapeth lying on the ground, and that’s what you’re worried about?”
Imogen glanced over to Benji. In his collapsed state, he looked almost peaceful, certainly not as cantankerous as he had been while awake. He was breathing regularly, though every so often a gasping sound came from him, as if he struggled.
She was tempted to offer him more help, but she had no idea if there was anything more she could do. At this point, she had to give him time and space—and she had to give her brother the same.
“What do you want me to worry about?” she asked Timo. “I know the stories about the Porapeth the same as you.”
Everybody knew those stories. They were mythical—at least she had thought so. Then again, in her time since leaving her homeland, Imogen had encountered many things that once would have been considered mythical, things that were impossible to believe. She had even face
d a powerful sorcerer who had more magic than she could imagine. And she had survived.
That had to matter.
Now she had a Porapeth with her. Unconscious, but still a Porapeth.
She would ask him questions. She would have her answers.
Timo gestured to Benji. “We have a Porapeth—”
“I know what we have.” She dragged two fallen logs over, brought her blade up overhead, and swept it down in a sharp blow. The strength of the movement cleaved one log in half. She placed the pieces together and began getting to work starting a fire. “And we have questions about this Sul’toral you’re determined to hunt. It seems we could work with him,” she said, nodding to Benji.
Timo staggered across the clearing toward him.
“If you touch him, you’ll find my blade at your throat,” Imogen said without looking up.
“You would do that to your brother?”
She looked over to Benji, and while he might be a Porapeth, he was also harmless at this point. Until he came around and was able to provide the answers she wanted, she wasn’t about to do anything that would hurt him.
“I would stop someone from killing an injured being.”
Timo rejoined her and sank to the ground. “Why?”
“Why am I not willing to just kill him?”
He nodded. “The Imogen I knew—”
“I’m not the Imogen you knew,” she said, returning to work as she started the fire.
Doing things like this was where magic would be helpful. Having a fire starter or even some sort of enchantment would’ve been beneficial to get the fire blazing. She had carried enchantments like that for a time. When she’d been in Yoran, she had never hesitated to have them on her. But since leaving the city and traveling with her brother, she was more hesitant about using them, almost as if she should be embarrassed.
She sighed as the fire began crackling slowly, leaving a swirling trail of smoke near them. Holding her hands out to the heat that wafted upward warmed her body, and she looked over to see Timo watching her.
“There was a time when you would’ve started the fire quickly,” Timo said.
“Is that right?”
“You’ve gotten out of practice.”
Unbonded (First of the Blade Book 1) Page 7